


The Lady's Sword

by LadyRhiyana



Series: Time travel and other twists [7]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Gen, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRhiyana/pseuds/LadyRhiyana
Summary: In which Brienne swears her sword to Lady Joanna.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Time travel and other twists [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1305521
Comments: 38
Kudos: 133





	The Lady's Sword

The news spread throughout the Seven Kingdoms like wildfire: the Dragon Queen had burned the Lannister armies to ashes, and the Kingslayer was dead, charging her great black beast on his white horse.

 _Damn you_ , Brienne thought, furiously wiping away tears. _You mad, reckless, glorious fool._

If only she’d been there, she might have tried to dissuade him from his folly - 

_Don’t cry, Lady Brienne,_ he would have said, with his reckless smile. _It’s a death worthy of the White Book._

**

She could not accept it.

She _would_ not accept it.

**

The Red Woman offered her – a chance.

No more than a chance.

“Who knows what plans the Lord of Light holds for us?” Melisandre intoned, her red eyes gleaming in the firelight. “I can only open the door. Where – and when – the door leads, only R’hllor knows.”

**

Brienne said her goodbyes. Slowly, carefully she donned her blue armour, Oathkeeper by her side. Gathering all her courage, she mounted Jaime’s chestnut mare – and with one last glance for the world she was leaving behind, she rode through the Red Woman’s fire-lit portal.

As she passed through the flames, she rode from winter into summer, from the harsh austerity of the North to the careless luxury of the South. The feel of the warm sun on her face was like a benediction, a caress; she could smell salt wind and the sea, and hear the crying of the gulls.

She was on a great cliff overlooking a restless sea. The sky was filled with a magnificent blaze of colour, the sun slowly sinking towards the western horizon.

 _The Sunset Sea,_ she thought. _I’m on the western edge of the world. Which means –_

Towering above her was the vast bulk of a fortress carved into a mountain, the battlements so high that she could only just make out the crimson banners flying in the wind.

Casterly Rock.

**

She rode up the long, narrow, winding road, all the way to the great opening in the cliff that she had heard men call the Lion’s Mouth. A great portcullis barred entry to the castle, guarded by Lannister guardsmen in crimson cloaks and lion-shaped helms.

“Who goes there?” one asked, stepping forward to challenge her. His eyes dropped to her sword, to the lion-wrought hilt. She tensed, expecting the usual hatred and distrust – but here, of all places, Oathkeeper would not be out of place.

“I am – ” she hesitated, tried to make her voice gruffer, more masculine. “I am Ser Brien Storm.”

“And what do you seek here, stranger?”

“I seek an audience with the lord,” she said.

“Lord Tywin is not in residence,” the guard told her. “In his absence, Lady Joanna has command of the Rock.”

**

Lady Joanna Lannister looked very much like her daughter. She was beautiful, with golden curls and fierce green eyes, but there was a warmth to her that Queen Cersei lacked.

She reminded Brienne of Lady Catelyn.

“Ser Brien,” she said, when Brienne made her bow. “What do you seek here?”

Brienne hesitated. If Lady Joanna was still alive, then Jaime would be no more than a child. She had not thought to travel so far back –

“My lady,” Brienne said, casting about desperately for inspiration –

“Mama!” an imperious voice called. A young girl of seven or eight years burst into the room dressed in a silken gown, her long golden curls threaded with a green ribbon. She stopped when she saw Brienne. “Who are you?” she asked. “Are you a knight?” Her eyes dropped to Oathkeeper’s hilt and widened with fascinated interest. “Is that – ”

Suddenly Brienne’s perspective shifted, and she saw that the young girl was actually a young boy, dressed in his sister’s clothes.

 _Oh,_ she thought. _Oh, of course –_

“Cersei, dear,” Lady Joanna said, with just enough emphasis on _Cersei_ that Brienne knew she had spotted the imposture, “this is Ser Brien Storm. No doubt he has come to seek a position among our household knights.”

“Yes,” Brienne said hastily. “Yes, my lady, I have.”

“Excellent.” She stood up, tall and blade-slim, a proud and noble lady, strong and gracious and beautiful. As she straightened she put a hand automatically to her belly, and Brienne realised she was with child. “The trials will begin on the morrow.”

“Trials?” Brienne echoed, a sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Why, we must make sure that the best men are chosen, of course!” said young Jaime. “The master at arms will put the candidates through a number of trials.”

**

The morrow came, and Brienne woke to find herself still in the past, still at the Casterly Rock of Jaime’s youth.

She donned her blue armour, imagining that she wrapped herself in Jaime’s protection. She drew Oathkeeper partway from its sheath, remembering Jaime’s words – _it’s yours. It will always be yours._

If she could not protect her own Jaime, if she could not keep him from leaping into bear-pits and charging at dragons, perhaps she could protect his past self.

When she strode into the practice yard, she was filled with determination.

The master at arms was a big man with a roaring voice and a shrewd, intelligent eye. There were perhaps fifty candidates, and he put them all through their paces, testing them on their fighting and riding skills.

It was a long, hard day. Competition was fierce. By the end of the morning, he had culled the worst of the group, and then set Brienne and about twenty others to more advanced drills, walking around the edges and watching them with narrow interest.

During a pause in the training, Brienne became aware that Lady Joanna was watching her, Jaime by her side – a young lordling in red and gold velvet, his hair a tumble of golden curls.

“Ser Brien,” she called. 

Brienne made her way over to the lady and bowed. “My lady.” And: “My lord,” to Jaime, who grinned up at her.

“I’ve no doubt the master at arms will offer you a position among the household knights,” Lady Joanna said. “A great honour, of course. But I wonder – will you accept a position as my personal guard?”

Brienne stared at her, astonished. “My lady?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”

“My son says you are a great swordsman,” Lady Joanna said, a touch of indulgence in her voice. “And I think you are more than a mere hedge knight from the Stormlands.” Her gaze dropped to Oathkeeper’s hilt. “I do not know what story lies behind that sword, ser, but I think you are a friend to House Lannister.”

Brienne choked back a laugh. Her loyalties were – tangled, to say the least. But perhaps she _was_ a friend to House Lannister, if only to Jaime.

Jaime, who looked up at her with shining eyes. 

“Yes, my lady,” she said in reply to Lady Joanna. “I think I am – a friend.”

“Then will you be my personal guard? You will have your own chambers, not sleep in the barracks with the men –”

Brienne looked up sharply at that, but Lady Joanna’s face was unreadable.

“– and you will guard not the walls and battlements of Casterly Rock, but myself and my children.”

“Oh, say you will, ser!” Jaime said. “Please say you will.” 

Brienne stared at Lady Joanna, at Jaime, helpless. She thought of the child Lady Joanna carried, of the secret that Jaime and Cersei shared that would one day tear the Seven Kingdoms apart.

She had stepped through the portal in a desperate attempt to save Jaime. But she’d never thought the Red God would take her so far back –

“Yes, my lady,” Brienne said. “Yes, I will.”

What else could she do?

And so she drew her Valyrian steel sword, knelt before Lady Joanna Lannister, and swore herself to that lady’s service. 

**Author's Note:**

> A note on ages: Canon!Jaime is 14 years older than Brienne. Brienne is about 20-21 in AFFC. So if she goes back to when Jaime was about 7, the age difference will still be 14 years, only reversed. 
> 
> Re: will there be any more to this: the answer is "possibly". I have a few ideas, but I may or may not get distracted by other things :-)


End file.
